Family Calls on DOJ to |Investigate Taser Death

(CN) – The family of a Florida man who died after being repeatedly Tased by Georgia sheriff’s deputies are seeking a federal investigation into his death. Chase Sherman was returning home with his parents and fiancee from a family wedding in November when he appeared to begin hallucinating. According to subsequent news reports, as the family continued down Interstate-85 south of Atlanta, Sherman bit his fiancee, and then tried to jump out of the back seat of the car. Sherman’s fiancee pulled the car over, and his mother called the police, hoping they could calm her son. Thirty minutes later, the family says, Sherman was dead, having been Tasered several times by sheriff’s deputies while handcuffed in the back seat of the car they rented to drive to the wedding. Video footage later released by Coweta County, Ga. prosecutors showed the deputies struggling to subdue the handcuffed man as he attempted to get out of the car, and then suddenly realizing he was dead. Sherman’s death certificate says he died as the result of “an altercation with law enforcement with several trigger pulls of an electronic control device.” On Tuesday, attorney Chris Stewart, who represents the Sherman family, said he’s sent a request to the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division requesting a federal investigation of the incident. Stewart said Coweta Judicial Circuit District Attorney Peter Skandalakis has taken too long to decide whether to present the case to a grand jury. Skandalakis said Wednesday morning that he hopes to reach a decision soon on whether to prosecute the case. He also said he would welcome the Justice Department’s involvement in the case and would cooperate fully with federal investigators.